3. Manufacturing processes

• The spinning process refers to the operation of producing artificial or synthetic filaments (chemical fibers) from a material in a molten state or in solution, which is extruded through a spinneret made up of a number of orifices (from one to several hundred thousand).

The melt extrusion process is by far the most widely used, but it can only be applied to polymers with a well-defined melting point and which do not undergo any secondary reaction (e.g. branching or cross-linking). This is the case for the most common synthetic fibers such as polyesters, polyamides and polyolefins, as well as various high-performance thermoplastic fibers such as PPS, PEEK, PCL (liquid crystal polymers)... It is also used to obtain glass fibers and certain ceramic fibers at extremely high temperatures (> 1,000 ˚C).

The solution...